The purpose behind our science

Yes, science is fun — it is the reason I did a PhD in the first place. Pushing the boundary of knowledge is exhilarating, and your skills and knowledge are challenged every day.

But there is another reason we do science, and it should never be forgotten: our work serves the people affected by addiction. There are 50 million people addicted to drugs, alcohol, or tobacco in the U.S. If you count their families, a combined 205 million people are directly affected by substance use disorders.

Treatments exist, but they often have poor efficacy or poor compliance. We need a better understanding of the neurobiological mechanisms responsible for drug addiction, more therapeutic approaches, better medications, better outreach, and better policies to prevent addiction. Your work can directly make a difference — and even if you don't think it can, you have a duty to try every day. Our research is funded largely by the public, and we are accountable to them for doing better every day.

So what's your goal?

First, what it's not: it is not to advance your career, not to please your PI, not to publish in a glamorous journal, not to be better than your peers. Those are consequences of achieving your real goal — they should never be the goal itself.

Your real goal is to produce rigorous, reliable, reproducible research. Hypotheses should be clearly testable, experimental designs well thought out, control groups included at all times, interpretation unbiased, and every procedure and data point recorded in a notebook. Do all that, keep your eyes on the real goal, and the career, the happy PI, and the fancy paper will follow.

How we work

Think like a philosopher

Know your stuff. Read the literature, go to seminars, ask questions, question the answers, question your beliefs. Refuse answers that are not logical.

Train like an athlete

Practice until the procedure is second nature. Use the best techniques, tools, and approaches. Learn new skills. Don't be afraid to fail.

Dream like an artist

See the beauty in science — the elegance of a design, the attractiveness of a figure. Be creative, be original, be bold. Try things that have never been done before.

Work as a team

If something is broken, don't blame people — help fix it. Give credit where it is due. Share, teach, disseminate. We stand on each other's shoulders; we don't step on each other's toes.

Care like a family

There will be times when someone is down. Don't blame, don't shame, don't ignore. Bring them up, encourage them, respect them.

Be open, be free

You don't need permission to talk about your data. The best science comes from interaction with others. Collaborate instead of compete and you will always win.

Put it on paper

If your science is not written up, it doesn't exist. Write it up — a poster, a preprint, a paper. Better done than perfect; there is always time to improve once it is finished.

Be honest, be ethical

Data is data. Do not manipulate it — ever. If the data isn't what you expected, it just means there is more to discover. That's exciting.

Be critical

Do not accept data at face value. If it doesn't look right, investigate, isolate the cause, and replicate. Solid, reproducible research is the only way to go.

Be a human

Go out, discover the world, have hobbies, enjoy life, exercise, resource yourself. Science is a passion, but it is not the only one. Find your balance.

— Dr. Olivier George

Joining the lab? Read the full expectations for each role.